Eco-gardening: Tips for a truly 'green' garden (...Continued)

Compost and peat free gardening

You already have most of the nutrients your garden will need - in your kitchen and garden waste. How can I go to the compost pile to create a rich soil, to return to your garden. Keep all grass clippings, leaves, kitchen waste and turn this free source of nutrients for plants in the garden of gold.

Peat has long been used to enrich soils, save it and increase the retention of aerated water. But as soon as the peat bogs have been harvested, they are gone forever. Talk to your garden center about alternatives such as coir (coconut fiber), which is composed of sawdust or rice hulls, straw or woodchips.

And one of the simplest alternatives to peat for free - just save the leaves from the trees in your compost in the fall and turn into a sheet form. The leaves take about a year to compost is rich in humus and to add bulk and texture of your soil.


Common pests and how to control them

Insecticides, herbicides and fungicides carry a variety of health risks and does not discriminate between pests and beneficial insects and plants. What can we use instead?

Here are some sound solutions to common garden pests:

• Spider mites and aphids: Knock them out of your plants with a strong stream of water. Repeat three or four days later to remove dead. If some remain, spray plants with soapy water. And if you plant a border of alyssum, it will attract insects, which are aphids for you.

• Codling moth larvae: If you have fruit trees in the middle of July Wrap the strips of corrugated cardboard or burlap around the sections of tree trunks to capture the codling caterpillars hatching silkworm. And bird feeders. The birds love to feast them, and would prefer them to your channel.

• Slugs: One of the easiest methods to control slugs is to leave opoyasok beer or water with sugar and yeast in it in order to attract and drown them.